Google Self-driven Car logo

We announced our self-driving car project in 2010 to make driving safer, more enjoyable, and more efficient. Having safely completed over 200,000 miles of computer-led driving, we wanted to share one of our favorite moments. Here’s Steve, who joined us for a special drive on a carefully programmed route to experience being behind the wheel in a whole new way. We organized this test as a technical experiment, but we think it’s also a promising look at what autonomous technology may one day deliver if rigorous technology and safety standards can be met.

And here’s the logo of the project, used in the PR video (2:54 ), published on 27.03.2012 :

I couldn’t find evidence for earlier existence of this logo.
Looks quite naive, but aren’t most of the Google logos like this ? :)
Do you think the car is readable as an “o” … or it reads more like an “a”.. or it doesn’t matter at all because even if they put a “X” inside – people will still recognize the logo just fine.
Any other opinions ?

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Talking about google logo stories – expect soon a logo story about an unused logo that I’ve designed for a google project.

Margarit Ralev created Logoblink.com in 2007, as a 100% logo design blog.
He started his career as s freelance web designer in 2001. Ralev.com design portfolio was created in 2004. In 2006 he registered “Ralev.com Ltd.”, a company providing all sorts of advertising and graphic design services. Since 2008, the company focused on brand identity design and brand consulting.